CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Finished Ishmael Reed's "The Freelance Pall-Bearers", started Norman Cohn's book on Messianic figures in the Medieval era a while back.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Just finished jose donosos obscene bird...cortazars todos los fuegos el fuego, and bolaños llamadas telefonicas and putas assesinas.

Starting in on adolfo bioy casares la invencion de morel-an early sci fi novel apparently
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Recently started Sebald's The Rings of Saturn - loving it so far, broadly similar in style to Austerlitz. It's amazing how the author simply travelling from place to place and not really doing anything at all becomes this perfect vehicle for observations, interesting historical asides and philosophical speculations. An entire novel seemingly composed exclusively of tangents.

thanks for this, picked up a copy today and enjoying it so far. Have you seen the Patience (After Sebald) film?
 

you

Well-known member
I've often wondered if Sebald influenced Kazuo Ishiguro - they were at the same university (UEA) and there are similarities in their interests - fruitfully opaque narrators, dealing with lost/forgotten/denied histories, the significance of place.... they both write these sort of super internalized Bildungsroman-type books - old men coming of age you could say. Recall the herring sequence in Austerlitz, or the frustrated library sequence - they are very close to some parts of An Artist In A Floating World - the loss of work, the destruction of artifact.

Baboon - the film is good, pretty much what you expect it to be but the content about his work and life is fascinating.

I think Sebald is way more influential than he is given credit for. Take Edmund De Waal's Hare With Amber Eyes - very Sebaldian, albeit with more of a caper pace...

I've been reading Philip K Dick - fantastic - his story craft is so tight, sci-fi ideas aside, he's just a fantastic story crafter.
 
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson is exceptional. I think he may be the best living American sci fi writer.

Read this on your recommendation this week, beach and plane reading, it was exceptional. Like the Martian in some ways, engineering-fi, but far more interesting and visionary.

10:04 by Ben Lerner - had high hopes for that, but turned out to be very hand-wringy, I left it out there on the shelf by the pool for someone else to read, along with the Granta 1997 or 1998 I'd borrowed which included an incredible essay by George Steiner on Austrian heraldry, quiddity and his family's flight from Vienna in the 30s - and Ben Lerner thinks he has problems?

Best holiday reading, apart from Aurora, was Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David Graeber, that was energising.
 
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droid

Well-known member
Read this on your recommendation this week, beach and plane reading, it was exceptional. Like the Martian in some ways, engineering-fi, but far more interesting and visionary.

10:04 by Ben Lerner - had high hopes for that, but turned out to be very hand-wringy, I left it out there on the shelf by the pool for someone else to read, along with the Granta 1997 or 1998 I'd borrowed which included an incredible essay by George Steiner on Austrian heraldry, quiddity and his family's flight from Vienna in the 30s - and Ben Lerner thinks he has problems?

Best holiday reading, apart from Aurora, was Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David Graeber, that was energising.

Aw, thats great. Glad you enjoyed it. He's one of those authors who manages to capture the sublime, seemingly almost effortlessly - even when he's indulging in huge info-dumps.

You should check out 'Years or rice and salt'. Its the holy grail of alt-history. Blows the whole genre to pieces. Also really enjoyed Gallielo's dreams and the science in the capitol trilogy.
 

droid

Well-known member
Oh yeah - if youre into the science survival stuff, you might enjoy that new Neal Stephenson, its the Martian/Aurora except on a much larger scale.
 
Aw, thats great. Glad you enjoyed it. He's one of those authors who manages to capture the sublime, seemingly almost effortlessly - even when he's indulging in huge info-dumps.

You should check out 'Years or rice and salt'. Its the holy grail of alt-history. Blows the whole genre to pieces. Also really enjoyed Gallielo's dreams and the science in the capitol trilogy.

I can't say too much about what happens in Aurora, easy to spoil with all those plot turns, but if you ever wondered how Banks's GSVs might have come about early in the Culture...

Thanks, I will check those out for sure.
 

benw

Well-known member
I'm going to go and finish reading his bibliography now. I skipped 'Antarctica' and 'Shaman' for some stupid reason. New China Meiville first though: http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...losion-china-mieville-masterfully-horrific-sf

im something like four stories into this. enjoying it, but i feel like some of the ideas need more room to breathe. mieville is better in long form imo. needs a bit more room to develop etc.

his novels - i dont think any of them grabbed me from p.1 but a few of them are firm favourites, so when youre reading a 20page or less story, that becomes a problem.
 

droid

Well-known member
Stick with it, it gets better. There's a great Laird Barronesque horror and a funny story about homicidal psychoanalysts.

His other short story collection 'Looking for Jake' is worth a read actually. Contains my fave Mieville story
 

benw

Well-known member
Stick with it, it gets better. There's a great Laird Barronesque horror and a funny story about homicidal psychoanalysts.

His other short story collection 'Looking for Jake' is worth a read actually. Contains my fave Mieville story

cool thanks for that. nearly gave up once already so useful to know!
 

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
im something like four stories into this. enjoying it, but i feel like some of the ideas need more room to breathe. mieville is better in long form imo. needs a bit more room to develop etc.

I'm about 50 pages into Embassytown which seems pretty damn good so far. Dunno why I slept on this one (since I've read all his others).
 

benw

Well-known member
I'm about 50 pages into Embassytown which seems pretty damn good so far. Dunno why I slept on this one (since I've read all his others).

actually embassytown is the one that took me the longest to get into. maybe coz im thick. pretty dense start as i recall?

but turns out great for sure.

just got to the homicidal psychoanalysts story, great.
 

droid

Well-known member
Gave up on embassytown, just didnt seem worth it. Then came Railsea which lasted about 5 pages.

Have either of you read 'king rat'? His Gaimanesque Jungle/London fantasy thingy. Its hilarious.
 

droid

Well-known member
The Scar & iron Council are his best IMO. Kraken was OK. The City was ambitious but didnt really grab me.
 

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
The Scar & iron Council are his best IMO. Kraken was OK. The City was ambitious but didnt really grab me.

Interesting - I thought The Scar and Iron Council were a bit hit and miss, not at all as good as Perdido Street Station. But I've only read any of his books once. The real test comes when you read them again.
 

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
Gave up on embassytown, just didnt seem worth it. Then came Railsea which lasted about 5 pages.

Have either of you read 'king rat'? His Gaimanesque Jungle/London fantasy thingy. Its hilarious.

I liked Railsea. The whole idea is completely ridiculous, but it sort of works if you suspend disbelief for 100 pages, or even 200 pages.

Yes, I've read King Rat :)
 
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